


You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive

by ranereins (shadowintime)



Category: Justified
Genre: Angst, Community: angst_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:10:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowintime/pseuds/ranereins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While chasing a fugitive through the woods in Harlan, Raylan takes a fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'Broken Bones' square of my Angst Bingo card. Unbeta'd, so any mistakes are my own.

Gun drawn but pointed to the ground, Raylan quietly walked through the woods, eyes darting around in an attempt to find the man he was looking for. The crunching of last fall’s leaves under his boots seemed to echo through the woods like a sirens call, betraying his position with every step. He listened for the same tell-tale sound that was sure to come from the footsteps of man he was chasing, but he heard nothing. Not even the birds dared chirp, as if they were afraid of being shot.

Raylan stopped by a tree growing on the side of a dried up creek bed. The trail of disturbed leaves ended here. He looked down the steep incline, easily a twenty or thirty foot drop, for signs that the fugitive had slid down, but the leaves still laid there as they had fallen. He barely had time to notice the patches of bark that had been broken off of the tree before the man he was looking for dropped from an overhanging limb. Raylan turned, raising his gun, but the man had the upper hand. In one swift move, the man knocked the gun from his hand and planted his foot in Raylan’s stomach, kicking him down the incline.

 

When Raylan woke, a stabbing pain shot through his right leg, his chest felt as though two-hundred pounds of weight rest on it and it was hard to breathe, his left shoulder was most definitely dislocated and something wet had run down his forehead, into the corner his eye and stung. He raised right hand to his face and wiped at the corner of his eye, trying to rid himself of the painful liquid. He looked at his fingers and found blood; he must have hit his head on the way down.

Raylan quickly angled his head to where he could see up the incline, the motion causing pain to shoot through his chest and shoulders. There was no sign of the man. Had he left or was he still around somewhere? Kept running, most likely. But Raylan hadn’t stayed alive this long by assuming things. He looked around for anything that he could use as a weapon. The best option within reach was a rock; not the best weapon, but he was in no position to be choosy. He reached for the rock, wincing in pain and resisting the urge to scream as he rolled it his way.

His next concern was the injuries he had sustained during his fall, especially his ribs. At least a few were broken, but given the difficulty he was having breathing, he most likely had a punctured lung as well. There was really nothing he could do about that though, other than to get to a hospital of course. He angled his body so that he rested against the incline and it was easier to get a look at his leg without stressing his ribs and lung. His leg wasn’t much better off, other than that it wasn’t a life threatening injury. It was a clean break, if the bone sticking out of his leg was any indication. He wouldn’t be going anywhere on it anytime soon, that much was for certain. He dug in his pocket for his cell phone. He needed help, fast.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Raylan muttered to himself as he looked at his phone. The screen was severely cracked and showed no signs of life. “Guess you hit a rock on the way down too.”

He laid his head back and stared up at the trees and the sky, thinking of his options. He closed his eyes sadly as he realized that he had none. He’d chased the fugitive at least a mile, likely more, into the woods. Between his difficulty breathing and his broken leg, he’d be lucky to make it a few yards, there was no way he’d make it back to his car. And he hadn’t called Art to tell him what was going on, so no one knew where he was or even that he might be in trouble.

He’d survived friends and enemies alike trying to kill him, people he barely knew shooting at him, scum of the earth thinking they could best him in a shootout… and now, now he was going to die in a dried up creek in Harlan from broken ribs that had punctured his lung and a broken leg that kept him from getting back to his car. What a way to go. Definitely not any way he’d ever imagined; not that he thought on it a lot.

He’d tried so hard to get out of Harlan; he hadn’t wanted to end up like every other poor S.O.B born there, criminal or working in the coal mines until the day they died. Which was typically fairly young. Maybe he’d picked the wrong line of work to hope for a long life.

Still, being born in Harlan was obviously a curse. No one ever got out, not for good. Harlan always pulled you back in.

Raylan readjusted himself to a more comfortable position and smiled bitterly. It was like that song said… “You’ll never… leave Harlan… alive.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Raylan? Raylan!?”

Raylan groaned, his head slowly turning to look for the familiar voice despite his eyes still being closed.

“Oh thank God! I thought you was dead for sure.”

“Tim?” Raylan asked, slowly cracking open an eye.

Tim smiled down at him. “Well, you remember me… that’s a good sign.”

“How’d you… find me?” Raylan asked between labored breaths.

“When you didn’t come back to the office and no one could reach ya on your cell, we started gettin’ worried. Art activated the GPS locator in your car. After I found it, it was just a matter of followin’ the path of disturbed leaves,” Tim explained. “What happened?”

“Guy… I was chasin’… got the… jump on me.”

“How long you been layin’ here?”

“You gonna… ask a… million questions… or are ya… gonna call… for help?”

“I called for help the second I saw ya laying down here. They’re comin’.

“Though I… was gonna die,” Raylan said, choking back the lump forming in his throat and doing his best to fight the tears of relief.

Tim stared at his friend, surprised by the show of emotion. He placed a hand on Raylan’s good shoulder. “Agh, you’re like a cat Raylan… I figure you got a few more lives left in ya yet.”

Raylan smiled. “Hopefully… more than… a few.”

“If anyone was to have ‘em, it’d be you.”


End file.
